Homemade Guanciale

Our recent move necessitated the use or disposal of any perishables. Since that time, I’ve been missing my cured meats the most. Luckily, we’ve been able to find some good bacon in Virginia. However, I have yet to find any thing as good as my homemade pancetta.

I have, however, made friends with a local pork farmer who comes to the Alexandria Farmer’s Market. As a side note, his pork is very very good. So far, I’ve only managed to get one pork belly from him (most are preordered by restaurants, mine has been turned into pancetta) but the real surprise for me was that he regularly sells pork jowls. I’ve been to quite a few specialty markets, butchers, and Asian groceries and not once have I seen pork jowls for sale.

To me, the real coup with finding pork jowls is that I can turn them into guanciale (another hard to find product in the United States). And my desire for guanciale is simply that it is the authentic ingredient in probably my most favorite pasta dish (and quite likely favorite food), spaghetti alla carbonara.

The most difficult part of making guanciale is finding a pork jowl. It’s cured simply with just salt and a few seasonings. Then it’s hung to dry. My choice of hanging spot was in our unheated sun room. The temperature was pretty close to right (50ºF to 60ºF) and seemed to have a pretty good humidity. The only possible mistake I made was hanging it by a window as a pork jowl is mostly fat and light can damage fat. I’ll have to return my drying to a mini-fridge in the future.

Until I had to go without, I didn’t realize how central cured meats like guanciale or pancetta are to my cooking. I like to keep some in the fridge to make quick, but good, pastas. It’s an effective way to add some protein to a meal or to modify a side dish into being a complete meal.

Rinse and pat the jowl dry. Trim any stray tissue, glands, or hairs from the jowl.

Combine the dry cure ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly.

Place the jowl into a large zip-top bag and rub with the dry cure on both sides. Refrigerate for 4 to 6 days, until it feels stiff all the way through. Overhaul the cure by redistributing the cure and turning the jowl over every other day.

Remove the jowl from the bag and rinse off all the cure. Dry thoroughly.

Poke a hole in the corner of the jowl with a knife. Run a piece of butcher’s string through the hole. Hang the jowl in a cool, dry place for 1 to 3 weeks, until it is stiff but not hard.

DebIff – Thanks. Guanciale was actually pretty easy in comparison to pancetta (which I’ve made several times now). Store bought pancetta doesn’t even come close to homemade (at least here in the US). We recently moved to Virginia which is close enough to the south and is the American equivalent of pork heaven). As an aside, your site provided me with a lot of inspiration when I first started cooking. So thank you for it.

colloquial cook – That’s quite the proposition there. I think you’ll have to take that up with my wife however.

Just be careful curing any meat as if it not done properly, serious illness even death can occur. Make sure you read A LOT before you attempt to make any fresh cured meat product. And remember, Sanitation is essential!